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> Is the situation really so dire? I for one don't think so. From my perspective, there's at least as much momentum in GCC as clang/LLVM, especially on the sta

by wahern 2y ago

> Is the situation really so dire? I for one don't think so. From my perspective, there's at least as much momentum in GCC as clang/LLVM, especially on the static analysis and diagnostics front over the past 5 or so years. That was originally one of the selling points for clang, and GCC really took it to heart. It's been 10 years since GCC adopted ASAN, and after playing catchup GCC never stopped upping their game. Perhaps the image problem is that LLVM seems to be preferred more often for interesting research projects, drawing more eyeballs. But by and large these are ephemeral; the activity is somewhat illusory, at least when comparing the liveliness of the LLVM and GCC communities. For example, both clang/LLVM and GCC have seen significant work on addressing array semantics in the language, as part of the effort to address buffer overflows and improve static analysis. But GCC is arguably farther along in terms of comprehensive integration, with a clearer path forward, including for ISO standardization. More importantly, the "competition" between GCC and clang/LLVM is mutually beneficial. GCC losing prominence would not be good for LLVM long-term, just as GCC arguably languished in the period after the egcs merger.

pxc 2y ago
> More importantly, the "competition" between GCC and clang/LLVM is mutually beneficial. GCC losing prominence would not be good for LLVM long-term, just as GCC arguably languished in the period after the egcs merger. You're right to note that "competition" here is more like inspiration than a deathmatch. But I vaguely remember two things that seem similar to motivation via competitive pressure to me: (1) when GCC 5 came out, it had way nicer error messages, and I immediately thought "Oh, they wanted to make GCC nice like Clang" and (2) IIRC the availability of a more modular compiler stack like LLVM/Clang essentially neutralized Stallman's old strategic argument against more a more pluggable design, right?

by wahern 2y ago

pxc 2y ago

> More importantly, the "competition" between GCC and clang/LLVM is mutually beneficial. GCC losing prominence would not be good for LLVM long-term, just as GCC arguably languished in the period after the egcs merger. You're right to note that "competition" here is more like inspiration than a deathmatch. But I vaguely remember two things that seem similar to motivation via competitive pressure to me: (1) when GCC 5 came out, it had way nicer error messages, and I immediately thought "Oh, they wanted to make GCC nice like Clang" and (2) IIRC the availability of a more modular compiler stack like LLVM/Clang essentially neutralized Stallman's old strategic argument against more a more pluggable design, right?